


The Green Priority

by eileme



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Drama, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-20
Updated: 2015-03-01
Packaged: 2018-02-14 01:02:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2172009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eileme/pseuds/eileme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony didn't really expect Loki, who by the way was supposed to be dead, to appear in Stark Tower with an offer. But things that start with something small always tend to become something so much bigger. A story of drama, betrayal, some humor and an unusual attraction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Dead Trickster

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, this is a short chapter because I need to begin the story in a good and hopefully not boring way. 
> 
> Oh and also, I'm Swedish so beware of incorrect grammar. But I think I did ok! 
> 
>  
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own any character or anything from Marvel.

**It had been months since Odin was killed and Loki took his place without a soul being aware of it. In the beginning it had been quite satisfying, but satisfaction was not something that Loki was longing for or something that would keep his mood up for a long time. Also, being powerful but still having restrictions was not the most entertaining thing. It was definitely time to do something about that.**

**Tony’s POV:**

“Sir, you have pressed snooze 12 times now. You are 70 minutes late for you meeting. “ Jarvis said louder than ever before.Tony damned himself for even making Jarvis able to raise his voice and then he finally got out of the bed, gave out the yawn of the century and slowly made his way to the bedroom door. “Jarvis, any missed calls?” he said as he finally reached the door. It was not a very unpredictable question since a missed meeting often resulted in at least 20 death threats from the very angry and easily upset man Nick Fury. “13 missed calls, sir” the AI replied shortly and Tony did not even bother to ask whom they came from. He made his way slowly to the kitchen and as that evil guy on a british television show once said, no rush. All of the Avengers meetings were often quite dull and unnecessary. The smell of roasted bread quickly filled the whole room and Tony was almost proud of himself for eating breakfast for the first time in at least six months. But the smell of roasted bread was not the only thing that filled the room, also a buzzing was growing louder. “Damn insects” Tony said as he tried to find the source of the sound. It did not take long before he saw a big fly sitting on the ceiling. That smug little shit. He did not even bother to kill it because he knew that if he didn’t make his way for the Avengers HQ any time soon he would soon be a dead man in the hands of Nick Fury.

 

“IT COULD HAVE BEEN AN INVASION! MILLIONS OF PEOPLE COULD HAVE DIED” Fury said, or well, screamed while everyone else in the room was quiet. Natasha looked at Tony with a smile, Clint tried to hide his laughter, Thor looked even more confused than normal, Bruce tried to read some kind of paper and Steve just sat at his chair with a poker face like the soldier he was. “Well hey, you announced this meeting a week ago! If it was a damn invasion I think we all would have been dead after your one week of nothing. LET IT GO” Tony said quite annoyed. Even Fury looked tired of shouting and just returned to his seat. He cleared his throat and started talking as calm as he could without being dead. “As I told all of you who were present earlier,” he drilled his eyes into Tony before continuing, “we have been noticing a strange energy recognized as Asgardian energy. But Thor is here and he tells us that there is no Asgardian that have any business on earth right now except him.” Everyone in the room was now silent. There was a name in the air, Loki, but mentioning Thor’s brothers name always resulted in some kind of sympathy for the crazy guy. When no one said anything for a minute Steve finally asked the question. “Thor, you don’t think that Loki-”

“No. Loki died in my own arms. I have told you before. In his last minutes he regretted his mistakes. He is my brother” Thor stopped for a second. “He WAS my brother and he was not as cruel as you, my friends, suggest.” Silence once again filled the room when Thor was finished. “Yeah, woah point break, we didn’t ask for your brothers last words or anything. We just wondered if you’re absolutely sure! Ease up big guy” Tony said jokingly before realizing that everyone was looking at him with the ‘HAVE SOME SYMPATHY’ look except for Thor who was just looking incredibly sad. Tony muttered a “sorry” before getting out of his chair and made an attempt to break the tension. “So who wants some food? This meeting is making me really hungry!”

“Stark, you have been in here for only 10 minutes” Fury said with a little bit of growing anger in his voice. “And it has been FANTASTIC, but now my friends, duty calls. Have a nice day!” Tony said before as he blew a kiss at them and left the room. When he arrived once again at the Stark Tower the first thing Tony heard was the buzzing over his head. “You little shit…” he said and started to spin around in an attempt to catch the fly. Suddenly a sarcastic and familiar voice said “Stark, you would make an awfully good ballerina”

 

“WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK” Tony screamed when he turned around and faced the tall demigod at the other side of the room who looked as always. Long black hair, boots that probably was from Doc Martens even if Thor denied so and the black and green armour covering the rest of his slim body. “Well that is no way to welcome me, is it Stark?” Loki answered with a smug smile and slowly started to walk towards Tony. “I will call your brother” was the only thing that could come out of Tony’s mouth. He was more shocked than terrified at the moment, because it was not even one hour ago that Thor had praised his heroic and nice little brother who by the way was supposed to be dead. This Loki who still was walking towards Tony did not look as dead as Tony had imagined. But the demigod now stopped. “Do you really want to do that? Without hearing my offer?” he said with a faked upset voice. “Hey Snow White, I don’t know which prince kissed you; I’m sure it wasn’t me, but I am not very thrilled to hear your tremendous offer. So yeah, I think  will call your brother. Do you want a drink?” Tony said and smiled confidently. Loki just laughed at those words, that son of a bitch, and started to talk again. “Stark, do you really think that I would go here and let you see me when my brother absolutely can’t know anything about my visit without having a good reason?”

“Your visit from the grave?”

“Oh I’m sorry, did I interrupt the ‘Loki is dead’ celebration party?”

“Actually yes. But stop talking nonsense and tell me about that offer, and THEN I will call your brother.”

Loki smile didn’t leave his face during the whole talk, but now it only seemed to grow bigger on his face. “Actually Stark… I don’t think that’s a good idea. I want to exchange information, and if you want my information you need to keep you mouth shut about my visit.”

“And in exchange…”

“I want information about Thor. Nothing that will make you feel bad, just some nice reports on how he is”

“Ehrm, I feel pretty bad about spying on my friend. What kind of information do I even get? This is bullshit little reindeer, I don’t have time to listen to Thor’s whiney little princess brother” Tony said annoyed. Any moment now he would call Thor so that they could do their brotherly business in some Asgardian way. Loki then continued“You had the chance to call Thor. I know about that AI of yours, and you have not told it to call him yet. But before you do, think about this. What if I told you that you and your little team are surrounded by the enemy?”

  
And that was when Tony made the decision to at least pretend to accept Loki’s offer.


	2. The Secret

**Tony’s POV:**

“Look me in my eye and say that again Stark.” Tony gulped nervously.

“SHIELD is full of Hydra agents and I know that because santas reindeer told me so”  He answered with a deadly serious voice. Steve rollED his eyes behind Fury and Clint was just looking slightly confused. Fury looked like he was about to explode at any moment. “I don’t have time for shit like this. Tell me who it fucking was”  Fury said with a voice mixed with anger and some sort of attempt to sound calm. The thoughts were spinning in Tony’s head. It would be easy to just tell the truth and make Thor go after his lunatic brother, but something in him wanted to know what more there was to discover. And something inside him was also scared of what would follow. But would he sell out Thor? Hell no. “It was an anonymous tip, okay? And he was REALLY determined that I under no circumstances could sell him out. “

“Fuck you Stark. Fuck you” Fury said with a sigh, looking like he had given up about getting out the truth. “FINALLY, you took the stick out of your ass” Tony shouted happily and started clapping his hands. The danger was definitely avoided. Fury left the room with no more words. Now it was only the team left. Clint walked up to Tony and said “Hey, congratulations on surviving that. Who want’s pizza? In that restaurant three blocks away?” The question was met with a mutal yes and the whole team assembled in a small crowd around Clint. Tony nodded enthusiastically and they all walked together towards the elevator. They stepped inside it and no one said a word until the elevators doors closed. Steve cleared his throat and started talking carefully. “Tony, all of us know when you hide something. Who told you? We won’t tell Fury if you don’t want us to.” Silence fell in the elevator. Steve and the team were left with no answers as the elevator hit the bottom floor and opened its doors in no time at all.

 

There was this weird tension the whole way to the restaurant and Tony could pretty much feel how everyone was trying to figure out what he was trying to hide. Natasha, who was walking in front of him, now and then looked over her shoulder and tried to find the dirty little secret. The walk felt more like a hundred blocks than three and when they finally arrived everyone forgot about the mystical reindeer and ran straight to an empty table, ready to order. The only one whose eyes didn’t turn into pizzas was Steve. He had been kinda quiet and all serious looking and sad since Tony’s short mention about SHIELD being full of Hydra agents. Tony smiled at Steve who actually smiled back and then decided what to eat. “Guys, I hope you are ready to order because damn I want this chicken pizza as quick as possible!” Everyone seemed to agree and Bruce turned around to call for the waitress. “Excuse me, we would like to order!” A slim waitress with black wavy hair and big eyes walked up to their table. “So what can I give to the heroes of New York?” she said with a soft voice and turned to Tony and winked. Tony’s eyes went up wide and he didn’t know how to react. He was used to women flirting with him, but the usually didn’t look this good. It was almost enchanting. Clint apparently saw what was going in and cleared his throat. “Ehrm, the cheese and ham pizza for me!” Then he was quickly joined by the rest of the team who ordered everything from cheese pizza to a strange salmon pizza.

 

During the whole dinner Tony was looking at the waitress who was looking right back at him. As a matter of fact, she didn’t care about any of the guests except Tony. As Thor was getting help from Natasha to eat his pizza correctly, Tony finally left his seat and walked up to the waitress. "I'm sure you know who I am since your eyes have been glued on me since I walked into this restaurant, but what is your name if I may ask?" The waitress looked him straight into his eyes and smiled. “Emma. I know a lot about you Tony Stark, and it’s an honour to talk to you. As a matter of fact, I have a few things to discuss with you”

“Well, I would love to discuss whatever it is with you”

“So maybe you should eat the rest of that pizza another time?”

“Maybe I should!” Tony grimaced and looked over his shoulder. The team was so busy with talking about something that it would be no problem to leave the restaurant with the woman unnoticed. “Let’s go then!” Tony said and began the walk back to the Stark Tower.

 

They had not even been in the hallway for one minute when they started kissing passionately. It was not very unusual for Tony to do things like this, the rumors did not lie. But this was the first time since the breakup with Pepper. A lot of things went through Tony’s mind when he and Emma kept kissing for god knows how long and Tony closed his eyes, but nothing in the world could prepare him for the sight of Loki when he ended the kiss and finally opened his eyes again. “WHAT THE FUCK” he screamed and stepped away from the waitress who now suddenly was the supposed-to-be-dead Loki. “Wow Stark, that was something!” the trickster said and did his usual smirk. Tony had no idea what to say or do, he just stood there with an open mouth. He had been through a lot of strange things in his life, but this took the prize. Loki just stood there and looked extremely pleased with himself, that smirking little shit. “What if that would have gone the whole way?” Tony spat out with an ounce of anger. “Well then that would be something to brag about for me if your reputation serves you right” Loki answered and lifted his right eyebrow in a judging way as if Tony had said something stupid. There was no words to be spoken for Tony. Why the hell did Loki even do that? After probably one more minute of confusion he was able to talk again, this time as calmly as possible. “Ha. Ha. Ha. Funny joke. “

“Joke?”

“If it was not a joke, then what was it? Some test? Did you place an enchantment on me?”

Loki laughed at those words and now it was Tony’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “Stark, do you truly believe that I would do something this desperate as a meaningless joke? It was required to get you attention quickly. I need that information you promised me right now“  

“Hey Reindeer, it was like five hours ago you asked me to do it. And as long as you don’t have any interest in Thor’s pizza eating there is nothing to tell. By the way, you even saw him eat the pizza. Oh, and you couldn’t you have done this in a way that didn’t involve us kissing? I will have nightmares for years now “ Loki just sighed annoyed at this. Tony tried to smile somewhat confident but was still more confused than ever. “I just need to know if you have seen him with a woman.”

“Does Natasha count?”

“Stark.”

“Okay okay! No, I have not. “

“Good. Inform me if he meet one.” He didn’t have the time to answer as Loki once again disappeared in the matter of a second. Tony went straight for the refrigerator and took out a beer. Alcohol was his best friend at the moment. What was he even doing, the obvious and most right choice was to tell everyone that the supposed to be dead maniac that pretty much destroyed New York was very much alive and also very much aware of where the Avengers lived. Or, at least one of them. The problem was that if he decided to tell them he was very sure that the annoying demigod would turn into a very much angry demigod and strangle Tony. And as promising that sounded, Tony didn’t feel like it was the smartest thing to do right now. So he drank some more beer and went to his workshop.

 

The workshop in the Stark Tower was located on the top floor of the building. In the beginning it was located in the cellar, but Tony preferred to be able to only walk up some stairs to get there instead of being locked into an elevator for almost one minute. Mostly of the time all of the floors in the tower except the three top floors were crowding with SHIELD agents since Fury wanted to turn the tower into an Avengers Tower, which didn’t really feel like a good idea in Tony’s head. But now when he thinked about it, it would actually be nice to not be the only one who got visited by a psychopath. When he entered the workshop his heart rate once again went straight to normal and all of his problems disappeared. Even if he didn’t have the Iron Man suits to work on anymore it was always nice to make something new or do some unnecessary upgrades. “Today, let’s take away Jarvis ability to turn his volume up like crazy” Tony uttered to the empty room. He caught himself waiting for Jarvis to answer something sassy, but the room remained silent. A look around in the room could tell that it was as messy as ever with papers all over the floor. Papers filled with ideas, thoughts and possible new Iron Man suits. Because he really couldn’t lie. Not to himself, not to the team and not to Pepper. He missed the suits as much as an addict misses it’s addiction. He yawned and rubbed his eyes. It had been both an eventful and long day. A clock on the wall showed the time eleven pm so Tony decided to make the best of the last hour of the day and went for one of the work desks containing loads of Iron Man sketches. It looked the same as it always had done but with a lot of new upgrades. For example the visit to outer space during New York that shut down the whole suit made him realise that it was time to accept the fact that the world was more than just the earth and it’s atmosphere, and he had to be ready for it. Just the thought of that moment made him sick to his stomach. It was not as easy as SHIELD made it seem to recover from that attack. Tony had seen too much, and it kept him awake at night. And everything was Loki’s fault. It all came back to Loki in the end, and that was why Tony was so afraid of telling everyone about what was going on. Loki destroyed his life one time and would most likely do it again. He finished his beer and got to work.

 

“Stark. We need to speak again.” The voice of Loki Laufeyson filled Tonys head. He felt dizzy and opened his eyes. On the other side of the table he could see Loki, looking at him a bit less annoyed than earlier. Tony’s head ached and his stomach felt like it contained a heacy stone. The only thing that made him feel a bit relieved was the fact that he was now more motivated than ever to tell the rest of the team about this visit. He could see Loki study him, almost waiting for a snarky or sarcastic comment. “What, you came back for another kiss?” Tony said with a laugh. He was so tired and everything felt more funny than it should. This was the third time in less than twentyfour hours that Loki came to him for a lovely talk. Loki just rolled his eyes and continued. “I know what you are thinking. And  I want you to know that I am watching you. Closely. All the time. If you utter a single word to your friends or my brother I will make sure that you pay” As this was no surprise for Tony, he just gave out another yawn and left his chair. It felt like the whole world was spinning around and his eyes was likely to explode. “Reindeer, that just sounds creepy. Stop make your pathetic threats and find something else to do. Let your brother meet other girls than Jane, I don’t even know why you’re so worried” he said and started walking towards the stairs. Without waiting for Loki’s answer he walked down and went straight for his bedroom and pretty much dived into his bed. Too much craziness for one day.

 

The next day started with a nervous Tony checking the three floors that were his of the tower for an annoying demigod. When he made sure that Loki was in fact not hiding under his bed he felt like he was allowed to get a proper breakfast. “Sir, Nick Fury wants you at SHIELD HQ in thirty minutes. I suggest you leave within fifteen minutes.” Jarvis said as Tony was heading for the fridge. “Again? I was there yesterday! Damn you Jarvis.” Tony said annoyed and went back for his bedroom to get dressed. He picked out his usual Black Sabbath t-shirt and a pair of jeans and went straight for the headquarters.

 

“Damn, you showed up on time” Clint said amazed when Tony arrived in the meeting room ten minutes early. Everyone was already there except for Thor and the man Nick Fury himself. “Maybe scared that he would kill you if you didn’t get on time today?” Natasha suggested with a laugh and Tony smiled at her. “Nah, I just felt creeped out by being in the tower right now.” The possibility of Loki appearing in the meeting room was slightly less than zero and that was what Tony needed right now. After five minutes of laughing and no one even mentioning Tony’s disappearing from the pizza restaurant the day before Fury finally walked in, looking more concerned than angry. Everyone went quiet. “I have gathered you once again because of Stark.” he said shortly and everyone turned to face him. Shit. Fuck. Fury probably knew about Loki. Hundreds of worthless excuses went through Tony’s head, none of them would keep him away from the wrath of Fury. But Fury still looked more concerned than angry which made Tony calm down after just a few seconds. No one said anything before Fury kept talking. “I listened to what you had to say about Hydra agents being here and checked it up, not believing you… And you were right. I’ve already found 23 of them and I’m sure that I will find more. Those motherfuckers are all over the place.” The room remained silent. But Tony’s thoughts were louder than ever. The thing Loki said about Hydra had been true. And one thing was for sure, he owed that trickster a big favour.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, school started two days ago. I'll try to update at least once a week, but I can't promise anything since I rater publish new chapters not very often than publishing shitty chapters really often.


	3. The Story

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating in a while, school has been crazy. Thanks for kudos!

**Loki’s POV**  
It was almost getting boring, just sitting on the throne listening to people talking about things that did not concern Loki one little bit. It would have been more pleasant if Loki was infact Loki, but when he had to pretend to be Odin there was some restrictions.

“My king, we have once again secured Vanaheim. Let us hope that it stays secure for a long time” Lady Sif said, kneeling in front of the throne. “Lady Sif, please let the warriors know that the Asgardians remain thankful to them as always.” Odin(or well, Loki) answered with the most boring and monotone voice he could think of. Lady Sif responded with a nod and then left the room. Loki had never really thought about how it would feel to rule Asgard, but this was definitely not what he was expecting when he got rid of Odin. But Loki was well aware of that this has to take some time. Even if it had to involve the Avengers. And that Man of Iron, Anthony Stark. And his brother Thor. But it all would be perfect in the end.

It sometimes happened that Thor came to visit and tell his father about what was going on with the Avengers, probably the only useful information Loki received while sitting on the throne, and today was no exception. “Father, we have now found out that a great evil is lurking in the shadows of SHIELD.“ Thor said, watching his father with a great concern. Perfect, this means Stark actually listened to Loki.  
“My son, a great evil is lurking in all of Yggdrasil and I feel like that the great evil will strike soon.“ Loki replied while watching Thor. He looked just as usual, clueless and foolish.  
“I fear that the evil called Hydra will not only affect Midgard, but also Asgard and the other realms.”  
“Son, I think that we do not have to pay any concern to that matter at the moment.”  
“With all respect father, I think that that kind of thinking was what lead to everything that happened to Loki.” Complete silence. Loki did not know what to answer. Odin would most likely say something really hateful, but Loki did not feel like talking bad about himself.  
“Son, let us not talk about that for the moment. Return to your friends and inform me if anything happens” he replied after at least one minute of silence. And the silence remained as Thor left the room without saying goodbye.

 **Tony’s POV**  
“Oh my god, oh my god… Or maybe demigod in this case. No, what am I doing. Damn. Shit.” Tony mumbled to himself while walking around in circles in his livingroom. Loki, that son of a bitch, had not been lying. Which meant he would be back. And Tony would owe him something. How fantastic. “Sir, should I call a doctor? I think you are being quite dramatic.” Jarvis said with a hint of concern. “Damn it Jarvis, I am in a serious situation here, just.. Just shut up a bit, okay” Tony replied as he now almost ran in circles instead of walking. This was a problem, and it was a big problem. The lunatic Reindeer gave him some important true information. That is good. And now he would most likely return for something. That is not good. The urge to tell Thor that his mental brother was very much alive was big, but it would probably hurt more people than it would save. Lunatic reindeer would most likely kill him and as many Avengers as possible and Thor’s eyes would turn into the eyes of a sad puppy when he realized that his brother betrayed him. Again. So it was not really an option. All he could do was wait.

It was in the evening when Jarvis announced that Thor was waiting in the hallway, (“Damn it Jarvis I’m in the shower”) and Tony got dressed faster than he had ever gotten dressed before. When he finally wasn’t completely naked anymore he ran into the hallway with a towel still in his hand. “Thor, how nice, uhm, you should have said something so that I would have been ready” Tony said with a failed attempt to excitement in his voice.  
“Son of Stark, I have payed a visit to my father in Asgard. He does not worry about Hydra at all.” Thor said, skipping all the greetings. They left the hallway and walked into the living room.  
“Hey, point break, I think we don’t have to think about that now. I think Fury scared them, right?”  
“He did not pay any concern when everything with Loki happened, and look where Loki is now.” Thor let out a sigh.  
I think I know way better than you about what Loki is up to Tony thought to himself. He almost felt sorry for Thor for still believing that his brother was dead. And a nice guy. Which he totally wasn’t. But Tony saw the chance to have a talk about Loki, because when he thought about it, the only thing he knew about him was what he found on google that time when Loki first attacked New York and he refused to believe that Loki gave birth to an eight-legged horse. “Yeah, it reminds me, can I ask you some questions about your brother?” Thor looked up at Tony.  
“Well, of course” he replied with some confusion in his voice.  
“I don’t know how to put this, but, what the hell happened?”  
“I’m afraid I don’t understand?”  
“You keep telling us about how he was a decent person before everything happened. So yeah, what happened?”  
And Thor began to tell a long story. A story about two brothers who grew up as best friends. About the little brother who grew up in the big brothers shadow, but the older brother was too blind to see it. He told Tony how the little brother often got sick during summers and how the older brother always was worried about him. The two brothers grew up to be men and while Thor had a talent for fighting, Loki had a talent for magic. “He also had a great talent for mischief” Thor said with a smile, thinking about the past. The story went from a happy story to a sad story when Loki found out about his parentage and pretty much went crazy. Thor skipped the part about New York since Tony had been there, but ended his story with telling him about how his brother got killed when he saved Thor.

Tony was numb. Loki was not dead. But here Thor was, Tony’s friend, looking so sad about everything that he thought had happened. The guilt almost ate Tony up. He felt like the worst friend ever. Tony bit his lip to resist himself from asking about the eight-legged horse etcetera, but couldn’t do it. “Okay, I have to ask about the eight-legged horse” Tony finally let out.  
“Uhm, well…” Thor said looking extremely confused and uncomfortable. But before he could answer this really important question they both almost got a heartattack when a loud “HEEEELLLOOOOO TONY” filled the room, no, the whole tower, and there was no doubt that the voice belonged to a certain Clint Barton. “Damn it Barton!” Tony shouted and tried to locate that son of a bitch. Clint Barton stood with a newspaper in his hand and a smirk on his face in the hallway, looking way to excited.  
“Stark, I’ve got great news.”  
“Natasha finally burned down your house?”  
“Shut up, and also I live in an apartment, not a house. Anyways, LOOK AT THIS” Barton said and threw the newspaper at Thor. The demigod looked at the frontpage, mumbling something like “I do not think I understand” before Tony snatched it out of Thor’s hands.

**The Avengers - Working in secret?**   
_An insider reports that the silence of the Avengers is not because they have forgotten about us, but because they have been working in secret. A woman named Emma Styles tells us about how Tony Stark is working on a new suit in secret and [...]_

“Fantastic. A gossip magazine speculating about us saving the world in secret.” Tony said rolling his eyes.  
“BUT CAN’T YOU SEE THE FRONTPAGE? It’s a picture, of me! I’m now the most famous one out of us” Barton said with sparkling eyes.  
“I thought you were a secret agent? Who does not want pictures of yourself on the frontpage? For everyone to se?”  
“Tony, it’s the age of the internet! There have been pictures of me since I first joined the Avengers. The point is, the picture is of me and not of you!”  
“Fascinating. Thanks for storming into my apartment, how did you even get in by the way, and telling me this. Amazing.”  
Barton walked up to Tony and grabbed the newspaper, then facing Thor and asking him if he wanted to return to the HQ with him and then said goodbye to Tony with a last “I’m on the front page!” before closing the door. Tony sighed and took out his phone and added an reminder to improve the security. He had had way too many visits for a lifetime today.

“Stark.” Tony jumped out of the sofa where he had spent four hours watching a documentary about Sweden, damn there was a lot of snow over there and now looked straight into the face of Loki Laufeyson. “Damn it, no more visits today! Why can’t I even have five hours by myself without someone showing up” Tony announced loudly followed by some swears. Loki just looked really confused and it took one minute and at least twenty more swears(which Tony found impressive) before he realized that Loki just stood next to the sofa, looking at Tony as if he was crazy without even saying something sassy. Tony broke the silence. “Perfect, you’re here. I had a lovely conversation about you with you brother just some hours ago.”  
“About what if I may ask?”  
“A lot, but he did not tell me if the horse thing was true.”  
“The horse thing?”  
“You know, eight-legged horse.”  
Loki now looked even more confused than he did before, if that was possible. Touchy. Tony just concluded that the horse thing would remain a secret for a while. “Okay, so let’s skip the horse thing. Why are you here?” Tony asked and raised an eyebrow. Loki now went from confused to pleased. “Well Stark, I think you owe me one.” he said with a smirk growing on his face. This was it. The moment Tony had been waiting for. But he still did not know what he should answer. Loki did not wait for an answer and continued to talk. “I take your silence as an ‘I agree’, and I am going to be quick about this. I obviously want you to keep quiet about my existence and I want you to ask Thor if Odin made any new weapons after my… Disappearance.”  
“Yeah, I’m sure he will be dying to tell me about that.”  
“Stark.”  
“Loki.”  
As there probably was no point to make Loki angry, Tony just nodded and Loki disappeared into thin air. Damn magic.

After a hectic day Tony went to his bed, ready to fall asleep for a really long time. As he told Jarvis to turn of the lights(“Doing it now. Goodnight sir”) and closed his eyes he started to think. Thinking about how Loki had so much power over him right now, and only because Tony had nothing to say about it. And that was when he decided that it was time to bring back the Iron Man suit and tell his team mates about a certain annoying reindeer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully it won't take more than a month to write the next chapter!


	4. The Problem

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think that anyone here is interested in hearing about why I've not updated for three months, haha. But I've been really sick for a long time now. Now I'm finally feeling a bit better, so lots of love and I'll try to update again as soon as possible!

Tony had to be honest. He had maybe, but just maybe, been way to excited last night when he decided to tell the rest of the Avengers about Loki. Or had he? Tony's head was a big mess and he did not know what he should do. If he decided to actually tell his teammates about Loki’s threat, Loki would most certainly not be very happy. But if he didn’t and his teammates at some point found out about it they would most likely not be very happy with Tony either. So well, to be killed by a crazy demigod named Loki or a very angry man that we all know as Nick Fury? The answer was simple.

“Okay Stark, we are all here. What did you want to tell us?” Fury said, looking suspiciously at Tony who was turning awkwardly in his chair. All of the Avengers were there, not knowing what was about to go down.  
“Uhm, you know Loki?” he said, trying to come up with the right words. When he mentioned Loki he could see Thor raising an eyebrow before saying “Loki? What do you have to say about my brother?”. Damn, why did Thor have to be Loki's brother? This made the whole situation even more awkward.  
“Well, Thor informed us about Loki’s death as you all know” Tony started followed by a nodding agreement from the rest of the people in the room. Tony then continued. “You know, he does not have to be dead, right? Maybe he lied, being the God of lies and all…”  
“Cut the crap Stark, what do you want?” Fury asked with irritation.   
“Yeah Tony, cut the crap or Fury will be furious!” Clint said, smirking, clearly very proud about his joke that no one cared to comment. Tony took a deep breath.  
“I’ll just say it. Loki showed up at my place. He was the one telling me about HYDRA” The reaction to what Tony just said was not as bad as Tony had imagined. Steve almost choked, Natasha fell of her chair and Thor looked like someone just had pulled a bad joke about dead puppies. No one said anything at first but after ten seconds of awkward silence, hell broke loose. 

It had been three days since Tony told the team about Loki. At first no one believed him, especially not Thor who told them approximately one billion times about how ‘Loki died in his arms’. Eventually Thor believed what Tony said and went back to Asgard so that he could talk to his father about Loki. He returned one day later and seemed both sad and angry at the same time. But hey, who wouldn’t be if you had a maniac brother who betrayed you all the time? Fury and the rest of the team avoided talking about Loki since pretty much no one thought that they would be able to find him. Well, none of them would be the first victim if Loki decided to throw magic orbs made of fire and destruction at them. To be honest, Tony was not as nervous as he probably should be. Since New York, nothing had been the same. Even if panic attacks was not very unusual, Tony had an “it will be okay”-attitude to almost everything. 

“Stark, I need you here right now. You agreed to do this” Fury said over the phone. Damn it, why did Tony agree to do this?  
“Uhm, yeah. I was very drunk when I agreed to do it, you can’t make me.”   
“Yes, I can Stark. Be here in one hour or else.”   
Click. Tony had no idea what ‘or else’ meant, but it would most likely not be pretty. Why was Tony the one that had to talk with that Peter Parker kid anyways? Wouldn’t it be better if Steve did it? But no, this had to be Tony's job. He sighed and went straight for the elevator that took him to his garage and picked the nearest car before driving off. 

After a several detours to avoid Fury for as long as possible, Tony finally reached the new SHIELD headquarters and Nick Fury’s office. “Two more minutes Stark and I would have been really pissed right now” Fury said, looking at Tony with his one eye.  
“Because that would have been unusual” Tony mumbled and gazed at one of Fury’s many computer screens. “Trying to find Loki with your amazing cameras again?” Tony said, nodding in the computer screens direction. The screen feverishly riffled through hundreds of different camera angles from, or at least that’s what Tony guessed, different cameras across the world. Something deep inside of him wanted to see Loki on one of those pictures, but he also remembered what happened the last time they ‘captured’ him.   
“Yes Stark, and I guess that is in your best interest as well since Loki most likely isn’t very happy with you telling us about his existence?” Fury replied, now also looking at the screen. No Loki in sight, just billions of people minding their own business.   
“You’re right about that. But let’s get this thing over with, why am I supposed to talk to that Parker guy?” Tony said and stopped looking at the screen at last.   
“He possesses great powers and we need to know that he will stay loyal to us if needed” Fury simply replied.  
“Does he even know about SHIELD?”   
“No, he does not. That is why you need to talk to him.”  
“Do you think he will believe me?”  
“Stark, the boy can shoot webs from his bare hands. I think he will believe you.”   
“Damn.” 

After a lot of screaming between the two of them, Fury eventually decided that maybe it would be for everyones best if Steve talked to Peter Parker. But Tony still had to “meet up with this Parker kid tomorrow”. And of course, “or else”. Relieved that he no longer had to do something that took a lot of effort, Tony went straight home once more. Why couldn’t they have these fights over the phone? Think about all the gas money that could be saved. The car clock showed 11:02 PM and Tony had to admit that he was tired. After parking his car he stepped into the elevator and yawned. It was no secret that Tony had been having some trouble with sleeping for the last few days, constantly worrying about a certain person showing up. And well, it was really no surprise when he finally stepped out of the elevator and entered the living room just to see Loki standing there, not looking very happy. 

“Stark.”  
“Loki.” Tony started. He was tired of this shit. “You know, Jarvis is probably calling your brother as I speak.”   
“I’m aware of that.”   
“So why haven’t you killed me yet? Or done something awful?”   
“Because that is not in my interest right now. While we’re waiting for my brother, why don’t you tell me if you’ve still not seen Thor with a woman?” Loki said, clearly irritated. Thor would be there any second if Jarvis did his job right. “No, I have not. And why are you obsessed with your brothers love life?” Tony said, raising an eyebrow. Loki didn’t get a chance to answer before the door flung open and Thor rushed in. At first he seemed very angry and also confused, but when he saw Loki standing very much alive in the middle of the room, his face was filled with hopelessness. The brothers looked at each other. There was silence. No one moved. After something that felt like hours, Tony finally said something. “Should I, ehrm, leave?”  
“No need for that Stark, am I right Thor?” Loki replied, still looking at Thor.   
“Do as you wish man of iron, I’m just trying to understand why my brother is so full of lies,” Thor said with a low yet clear voice.   
“Because he is the God of lies” Tony mumbled before immediately being met by a ‘not helping at all’-look from Thor. He decided to stay in the room so that he could understand what the hell was going on.   
“I think that it’s appropriate if you chose to stay Stark, because I’m just about to kindly ask you both to keep my very existence a secret” Loki said with a serious voice. Tony gave out a laugh. “Reindeer, you do know that I told everyone that you’re alive? Right?”   
“Then make something up to cover up the fact that I’m very much alive. I thought you were smart” Loki replied, even more irritated than before. Thor shook his head and now seemed angry. He started. “And why would I do that? I promised you that if you betray me once more I will kill you.” No one answered. “And still I’m still standing here, not doing anything.” 

Tony could almost swear that they had been standing there, silent, for years. It felt like he had a heavy stone in his stomach. Even if he wasn’t involved in this drama he still felt really awkward. Thor’s face was full of seriousness while Loki’s face had a neutral expression. Tony caught himself slowly taking a few steps back. He could almost feel the tension in the air. But still, it was strange. Thor didn’t do anything, which wasn’t that strange when Tony thought about it, but Loki didn’t do anything terrible. He didn’t even say anything. After way to long, Tony finally said something. “As touching as this scene is, I think it’s time for you to say something Loki. What is your plan anyways? Because I doubt that your big master plan is to know everything about Thor's love life.” Thor raised an eyebrow and mumbled something about “Why would Loki want to know everything about-” before being interrupted by a clearly irritated Loki. “The woman is not very important, the important thing is that no one can know that I’m alive.”   
“I told you, everyone already know” Tony replied, not that happy about still talking to Loki.  
“And I told you, make something up” Loki said, eying Tony. Tony on the other hand was looking at Thor, hoping for him to do something about the situation.   
“Give us a valid reason why we should do that” Thor eventually said. Tony was not very convinced that Loki actually would say something that made sense, but he nodded in agreement.   
“Because I told Stark about HYDRA.”  
“We would’ve figured that out by ourselves eventually” Tony replied.  
“But will you find out about what Thanos is planning to do before it is too late?”  
“What is Thanos planning on doing?” Thor said, his face now turning even more serious.   
“And who is Thanos?” Tony asked, feeling slightly confused, he did recognize the name. He was completely ignored and Loki and Thor kept on talking.  
“Well, ‘brother’, I could tell you that. But why should I?”   
“You are not giving us any reason to not tell anyone that you are here right now.”  
“Sure, but you of all know what Thanos is capable of doing. And I am sure that Stark hasn’t forgot about New York, am I right?” Oh. Right. That was why he recognized the name. Even if Loki had been the one fucking everything up in New York, Thanos had been the puppet master. Tony started. “Well, I don’t know when you turned so kind, but no. After all you’ve done, we can’t possibly help you. Am I right Thor?” Thor did not answer, he just observed Loki. “Am I right Thor?” Tony tried again, beginning to feel some doubt that Thor’s answer would be ‘yes’. Thor sighed before finally speaking. “Stark, Thanos is a bigger threat than you can imagine.” Tony did not know what to answer. Thor could not be serious. “I get that you guys are family and all, but seriously Thor? When was the last time Loki did anything right?” he spat out, feeling the rage building up inside of him. This could not be for real. This was a nightmare. This was not right.


	5. The Nightmare

Thor looked at Tony with sad eyes. Loki did not say one single word. Tony was not able to breathe properly. Everything in his head screamed ‘no’, but Thor’s eyes begged Tony for sympathy. And as screwed up Thor’s family is, there was no way Tony could let this happen. Because once again, how could this be right? Tony probably did not look very convinced, because after maybe a minute or so Thor sighed and answered. “I know that he can not be trusted, but if Thanos is up to something I want to know why. We have two options here, the first being to ignore this and the second being listening to whatever Loki has to say and… Well, if we want this planet to be safe we should go for the latter.” He almost spoke as if Loki wasn’t standing about three meters from him and Tony was still not even close to convinced. What if Loki lied to them? What if Thanos did not want to do the earth any harm? Or okay, did not want to do the earth any harm right now. Because obviously the small New York incident could not be ignored. Thor looked unsure and spoke once again. “Stark, I know this might sound, as you midgardians say, bananas, but you and I want the same thing and that is for this planet to remain safe.” Tony then broke his little vow of silence. 

“I know that you and I are on the same page, it’s the dude standing over there I’m a bit worried about” Tony said, pointing at Loki who once again raised his eyebrow. Damn Loki and his eyebrow. As if he had forgotten about Loki being a problem, Thor turned to Loki and let out an ‘oh’. For the millionth time, there was silence. During this not very talky talk, something had changed on Loki’s face. Loki now looked desperate. But for what? It was a complete mystery to Tony.

“Stark. Brother. I shall summarise this to you. I happen to know that Thanos, who I think is the reason for Stark not being able to sleep properly, is planning on something. The reason for me telling you this is because I need your help for something in the future, but what that is, shall remain a secret for now.” Loki said and took a deep breath. Still, this could not be right. Tony was stunned for a moment. Then he spoke. “One, how do you know about my sleeping problems? And two, YOU are the reason for me not being able to sleep. You were the one fucking it all up, remember?” He could feel his face turning red. Because yeah, he could not remember the last time he had been able to sleep through the whole night. His nights were filled with memories. Memories of death. Memories of everything that followed. And the memory of Loki throwing him out of a window was not very pleasant in the land of dreams. A lot of thoughts went through Tony’s head and it came to a point where he realised that if he did not agree to keep quiet about Loki they would most likely never leave the room they were standing in. So he closed his eyes, damned himself and calmly said “Okay. But if anything happens because of this, it’s all on you Thor”. He opened his eyes again and faced Thor who nodded and smiled. Why did he smile? Well, who knows. Most likely because of his psychopath brother who wanted to share a secret with him for whatever reason. Now, when they all had reached the point where they agreed, Tony cleared his throat. “Well, it is truly amazing that you all took the time to visit my humble home. But now you all may leave, if that is okay?”   
“I shall take my leave. I will see you tomorrow Stark” Thor answered and made his way to the door. Tony was tempted to ask why they would meet tomorrow but it probably had something to do with Fury and therefore he did not bother to ask. He turned to Loki who did not move. “And what about you, will you please leave now as well?”  
“If it does not bother you Stark, I would like to stay here for a bit longer.”   
“It does bother me actually.”  
“I will be gone before you know it”   
Not feeling like spending the rest of the day arguing about bullshit, Tony mumbled ‘whatever’ and said good bye to Thor who looked a bit concerned about Loki staying.

Now there was only Tony and Loki standing in the living room. Loki did not look very chatty, so Tony went straight for the sofa. Trying to ignore that there was a crazy demigod standing behind him, he turned on the TV to calm his nerves after a rather eventful day. He could hear Loki taking a few step closer to him and was really surprised when Loki suddenly sat in the same sofa as him. It was a funny sight seeing Loki in full armour sitting in a damn sofa. Or no, it was actually not funny at all. The guy sitting one meter away from Tony was responsible for so much death. And the cause of every nightmare Tony had had since New York. “So, I take it you stayed so that you can watch TV with me?” Tony said in an attempt to calm himself down.   
“I have no interest in midgardian television.”  
“Uhm, okay.” Tony said confusedly.   
“Actually Stark, I am here to ask you if I might stay here for a while.”  
“You know my answer to that question”  
“I do.”   
“But if I say no you will probably stay anyway, right?”  
“Right.” Damn it. That was it then. Loki wanted to stay in the Stark Tower for some reason. Tony though about calling someone that could make Loki leave but immediately remembered that little detail about how he was not allowed to tell anyone about Loki. Tony’s heart was pounding. He was sitting next to his worst nightmare. This was not okay. But in the middle of all these bad thoughts, he remembered something. “Loki, can I ask you a question?” Loki did not answer and Tony took it as a ‘yes’, so he continued. “Is the thing about the horse true?”  
“What horse?”  
“You know, you giving birth to a horse”  
“Uhh…” Loki mumbled, his face turning red, clearly not expecting that kind of question. Tony grinned, because this was the funniest thing he had seen for a while. Loki was sitting in his sofa, face red and feeling awkward about a question that Tony had asked him. It almost looked a little cute Tony thought, if it wasn’t for the fact that Loki was an evil son of a bitch.

Loki did not say anything more and therefore Tony decided that the thing about the horse was true. And he felt slightly proud that he made the God of Mischief feel awkward. Loki probably saw the amusement in Tony’s face because the red colour disappeared and he answered the question. “Well Stark, these stories in your books are made up by midgardians. Not gods.”   
“But is there any truth to the story about the horse?”  
“No.”  
“Well that’s too bad” Tony replied, feeling a bit disappointed. And now he remembered again. Loki. Sofa. What? Why was Loki in his sofa? What the hell was going on? How could this be realistic? And why could he not hear the TV? He reached out for the remote and turned the TV off before leaving the sofa. He did not even bother to tell Loki what he was doing because the whole situation felt so surreal. But as a matter of fact, Tony was heading for the bedroom. Because he was exhausted and did not feel like putting up with this shit anymore. At least not today. When he reached the bedroom he jumped into the bed and closed his eyes. He did not bother to check the time or even turn into his pyjamas, because there was no way this could be real. No way.

_People screaming. Fire. An army of aliens. Dead bodies on the street. Tony couldn’t breathe. He was panicking. It was his duty to stop this. He was alone in this war. He did not wear his Iron Man suit, even if he didn’t really know why. He started running. Something was behind him, but he couldn’t see what it was. He was not able to control his body. There was nothing he could do. Suddenly he stopped running. On a building far away he could see a man with green armour. It was Loki. Then the ground opened up, and suddenly Tony was falling. He tried to scream, but not a single sound left his mouth. He felt like his head was about to explode, but nothing happened. He just fell through the darkness. Fell through nothing._

Tony woke up covered in sweat. It was not something unusual, this happened to him every night. But now it felt worse, because now his nightmare was in the same building. If of course Loki hadn’t decided to leave when Tony went to sleep. “Jarvis, what time is it?”  
“3 am in the morning, Sir.”   
“Is he still here?”  
“Yes Sir.” So Loki didn’t leave last night. It did not surprise Tony, but it felt so damn awful. He left his bed and went for the bathroom where he washed his face. When he was done, he went straight for the living room where Loki had been last night. But there was no one in there. Tony decided to watch some TV since there was no way he could go back to sleep now, but just as he was about to throw himself onto the sofa he discovered Loki who had fallen asleep. On his sofa. “Why is Loki sleeping on my sofa” Tony whispered to himself and looked at Loki. It was strange, because Tony had no idea what the hell was happening and he could not contact any other Avenger than Thor and talk about it. But right now he felt slightly pissed at Thor for making him agree to tell the Avengers that Loki in fact was dead and therefore Tony was very much alone. Realising that he would not be able to sit in his sofa for a while he went for his armchair instead and observed Loki. Observed his nightmare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I won’t make any promises like “Yeah I’ll update soon” because then I feel guilty when I don’t, but I promise you all that this fanfic will be completed! When? I don’t know, we will see! But thank you sooooo much for the kudos, they mean the world to me


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